I have mentioned in passing that last week, aside from the sad business of Misty, also saw us having to contend with an attempted online banking fraud. This happened during the early hours of last Monday morning (08/11). The fraudsters managed to reset my debit card password enabling them to to put through a couple of purchases totalling over £300.Luckily SWMBO (who checks the bank online daily) was alerted to a large pending debit that was unaccounted for and so called me to find out what I had been spending that sum of money on (I am sure you can imagine the conversation!). After we had established that neither of us had anything to do with this it was then on to the bank and the first of a series of long and wearying phone calls to sort this mess out. We eventually received the money back so had not lost out financially but the sheer inconvenience and worry have certainly taken their toll (remember that this was alongside Misty's final few days). We had to cancel our debit cards and order replacements and then 'delouse' the PC as an additional precaution. This has all been done (although the PC is pretty darned safe in any event) and SWMBO and myself reckoned that the remedial action to this relatively small incident has taken between us some six hours of phone calls and the same on the PC - changing passwords and 'nuking' anything vaguely connected to personal details.
We were lucky in that the bank is checked daily so it was nipped in the bud early on. I am posting this simply because most gamers use online shopping etc in one form or another and I am absolutely no exception to this. All I am saying is that be very careful out there in cyberspace - this kind of thing is not just something that happens to other people - and make sure that you exercise care around changing passwords, keeping personal details etc safe and your PC protection up to date etc. Clearing out your PC after using it with any of the instant delete software for things like cookies and temporary internet files is a good habit to get into.
In the words of Shaw Taylor - "Keep 'em peeled!"
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